Hashing messages using various hash algorithms in .NET

A hash of a message can be viewed as its unique identifier. A series of bytes, such as a string, can be converted into hash, also called a message digest. A message digest is also a byte array that can be converted into a base 64 string for better readability. There are various hashing algorithms out there that can calculate the hash of a message. Ideally each algorithm should produce a different digest for each message, i.e. “Hello world” should yield a different hash from what “H3llo world” produces. I.e. a single change in the byte sequence will change the resulting hash. Also, it should be impossible to calculate the original message from a hash. Therefore hashing is a one-way cryptographic operation.

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